Oh, how I love these amazing days of spring!

There’s so much life and energy in the air.

Pure bliss!

Yesterday we took a delightful late evening walk under some old majestic trees. It felt pretty amazing.

I took a few pictures too…

 
 

Thanks for letting me share.

Wishing you a nice day!

Love,
Petra

 

Oh yes, it is true.

It really is possible to make the most delicious creamy ice cream using just one ingredient.

Do you wonder what the name of that magical ingredient might be?

 
 

It’s bananas!

Ripe, sweet, delicious bananas.

 
 

1. To make the ice cream, peel the bananas and cut them into small pieces.

 
 

2. Place them in a Ziploc bag or in a freezer-friendly container.

 
 

3. Then freeze them for about 3-4 hours. The point is that they should be very cold and firm, but not rock-hard, as I found out.

 
 

4. And finally just blend them in small batches, scraping down the bowl frequently.

Since my banana slices were very hard, my blender was refusing to do the job and I ended up using my grinder.

 
 

And here it is – the easiest and creamiest ice cream ever.

Yummy!

Hm, I think I already know what my favorite treat this coming summer will be.

Enjoy, dear friends!

Love,
Petra

(This recipe was adapted from thekitchn.com.)

 

Have you ever tasted a carrot cake in muffin form? It’s a truly delightful and cute experience, I have to say.

These carrot cake muffins taste just like a carrot cake, except, well, in the form of a muffin.

I really like their lovely cinnamony taste and their moist texture. But what I like best is that they have the frosting already ‘built in’. Yes, they hide this wonderful baked-in, sweetened cream cheese filling inside.

Isn’t that just adorable?

In case you’d like to know more details, then here they are…

 

This is all that we need to make the magic happen.

 
 

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 °F (205 °C).

2. Then, in a larger bowl pour all the dry ingredients: flour, white sugar (3/4 cup – 150 grams), light brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and salt.

 
 

3. Whisk/stir the dry ingredients to combine.

 
 

4. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, water and oil.

 
 

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
 
 

6. Stir to combine (do not overmix, muffin batters do not like that.)

 
 

7. Fold in the grated carrots.

 
 

8. To make the filling, place the cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Set aside.

 
 

9. Line a standard 12-muffin pan with paper muffin cups and grease the cups.

 
 

10. Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter (a cookie or ice-cream scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom.

I added a little more than 2 tablespoons of the batter as the first layer which resulted in the filling ending up a bit too high. So, the point is just to cover the bottom of the pan with your first layer.

 
 

11. Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling.

 
 

12. Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups quite full.

 
 

13. Bake the muffins at 400 °F (205 °C) until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one (not into the cream cheese filling) comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The tops of the muffins will feel firm to the touch.

 
 

14. Remove the muffins from the oven and tilt them in their cups (two forks could help you here). This way your muffins will cool more quickly.

 
 

Enjoy, dear friends!

 
 

These are yummy!

(This recipe was adapted from kingarthurflour.com. It makes 12 muffins.)

 

Kung Pao has been one of my favorite chicken recipes ever since I can remember.

When I found this finger-licking recipe from Bobby (blogchef.net), I immediately knew my fate was sealed. It looked so delicious I needed to prepare it as soon as possible.

Here’s how Bobby himself describes this recipe: ‘Kung Pao chicken first originated in central-western China and has become very popular in the United States. This is the westernized version of kung pao chicken consisting of wok fried chicken pieces, roasted peanuts, scallions and a spicy sauce. For those of you that have been waiting for a Chinese chicken recipe that doesn’t use a deep fryer – this is it.’

And here’s the process in more details…

 
 

Here’s all that we need.

 
 

1. To make your Kung Pao Chicken, combine the chicken and cornstarch in a bowl and toss to coat.

 
 

2. Heat the sesame oil in a wok or pan over medium heat.

 
 

3. Add the chicken and stir fry 7-9 minutes or until no longer pink inside.

 
 

4. Chop the green onions and mince the garlic cloves.

 
 

5. Add the green onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and powdered ginger to the wok or pan and stir fry for about 30 seconds.
 
 

6. Combine the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix well.

 
 

7. Add the sauce to the wok or pan.

8. Stir in roasted peanuts. Heat thoroughly.

 
 

9. Top with additional green onions if desired and serve over white rice.

Enjoy!

With love,
Petra

(This recipe was adapted from blogchef.net.)

 

Hi guys!

I am stopping by to present a new pattern that I have just recently put together.

This one is all about hearts. Sweet and colorful hearts. Because there is never enough of love and crochet hearts in one’s life, is it?

 
 

But beware!

Once you start making them …

 
 

… you might find out that it’s impossible to stop …

 
 

… and you need to make more and more and more … and more.

 
 

That’s what happened to me anyway.

 
 

Sooo, if you like these hearts and crocheting is your thing, you can find the pattern and all the details about it in my SHOP.

Enjoy!

With lots of love,
Petra

 

Crochet baskets are one of those projects where cute meets functional making the whole crafting process a very fun and enjoyable experience.

I love crochet baskets and in case you like them too I have now put together a PATTERN to share with you.

 
 

These baskets are pretty simple to make. They can be whipped up in almost no time.

 
 

They can be made in many colors to match your room decor. And I guess they can make a pretty darling gift too.
 
 

Here’s a sneak peek of the pattern. It contains many many step-by-step pictures to make the crocheting as easy as possible. If you’d like to learn more details about the project and the pattern, you are welcome to visit my SHOP.

Wishing you happy crafting!

With lots of love,
Petra

 
 

Hi friends!

I hope you are doing fine!

The past two weeks of my life have been really relaxing and nice. Here are a few moments that I snapped…

I enjoyed playing with colors to make a few of my granny squares with circles inside. Pure relax!

 
 

I made this crochet basket too.

The good news is that I am now putting together a pattern to share with you.

 
 

I enjoyed a lot of spring walks by this lake.

 
 

As I found out, the lake looks amazing at night too. I feel really lucky to live so near to it.

 
 

A girl and her owl… is what I saw.

 
 

As you might know, I call Ikea my second home. This photograph caught my eye during my recent trip there.

 
 

And I loved these posters too.

 
 

I bought some fake decorative stones. Please, don’t judge me

 

 

And a few cute and delicious birthday presents made me really happy last week. Yes, I have just recently celebrated another year of my ‘late-twenties-early-thirties’ as I like to refer to my age these days

 
 

I continued to shoot more pictures for my ‘free floral desktop wallpaper’ project that I am working on.

 
 

Oh, and I made a few of these colorful crochet hearts too. I think that a pattern might follow soon.

I am wishing you a great week!

With lots of love,
Petra

 

Lately I’ve received quite a few questions asking me what my photo editing process looks like. This got me thinking about how many stages in photo processing I have actually gone through.

A few months ago I put together this post about my favorite retouching techniques.

And just recently I found a real gem. It is a cute set of actions (or ‘stylets’) called RadLab. And I ADORE that thing! The actions/stylets are super-easy to use and make the whole photo editing process really quick and enjoyable.

Here are a few example for you to compare…

 
 

What do you think? Do you like the difference?

Love,
Petra

 

Hi guys!

I hope your week was lovely, happy and colorful.

Mine definitely was!
 

Here are a few moments that I captured…
 
 

I took many many pictures of flowers this past week.

I am planning to put together a little free collection of colorful macro flower shots to use as desktop wallpapers.

 
 

I celebrated the second birthday of my crochet pattern shop.

 
 

I found these adorable cupcake trays. Now I need to find a worthy recipe to fill them with.

 
 

I took mood pictures of pasta. For some reason, I just felt like it. Actually, when I think about it, I just might have been overjoyed by the fact that it is now possible to take pictures at as late as 4 in the afternoon. Aaah, love those stronger rays of light.

 
 

Got me this pretty box.

 
 

It stores my crochet hooks perfectly.

 
 

Getting inspired by this lovely granny crochet afghan in a magazine.

 
 

Consequently, designing this new granny square here. It made me really happy!

 
 

Now I am playing with colors to choose the right ones for more crochet granny squares.

Wishing you a nice week!

Love,
Petra

 

To my utter astonishment, I have just recently realized that my crochet pattern shop turns two today.

Wow! Time really flies! Especially when you spend it doing what you love so much. I enjoyed creating every single pattern that found its place in my shop. And I really appreciated your support and kind words along the way!

I am sending you all a big ‘THANK YOU’ and a huge hug and kiss too. You are the best!!

With lots of love,
Petra